Skotos Launches Associate Games With Meridian 59, Underlight and Gang of Four

BERKELEY, CA  Skotos Tech, a gaming community offering a channel of multiple games to its players for a single price, recently launched its Associate Games program. This program offers existing online games to the Skotos community. Meridian 59 and Underlight, two veteran Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs), along with Gang of Four, a tabletop strategy game, are the first to join Skotos as Associate Games.

"We've got a great gaming community that allows users to play many different games," said Shannon Appelcline, Vice President of Skotos. "The Associate Game program allows other game designers to take advantage of that." Associate Games get to benefit from Skotos marketing, branding, and business development. They also become members of a game designer's community which jointly has more clout when talking with carriers and portals than any game would individually. A sophisticated royalty system ensures that each game shares user fees from every player proportionately.

Meridian 59 was one of the first MMORPGs on the market, originally offered by 3D0 and now published by Near Death Studios. Players explore a fantasy world while gaining skills, learning magic, and engaging in combat. Skotos is offering a special Sacred Haven shard for Meridian 59 which encourages cooperative player gameplay.

Underlight is a MMORPG set in the Awakened city of Underlight, it centers around roleplaying, socialization, and joint storytelling. Quests and even skill gain are ultimately based upon player interaction, thus creating a real, virtual society. Underlight is produced by Lyra Studios.

Gang of Four, on the other hand, is a deceptively simple card game which originated in the Orient and is now being produced by Days of Wonder. Its gameplay strategy is fiendishly complex, requiring careful play to ensure a player of the ability to go out. Whereas the MMORPGs can be played for months or years, Gang of Four plays in 30-45 minutes; together they thus outline a whole spectrum of possibilities for Skotos players.

Skotos Tech is actively looking for more developers to become members of the Associate Game community. "Last month we had four Skotos games," said Shannon Appelcline. "Now we've got seven, and by the end of the year I'd love to have at least twelve. It's a win-win for developers, because we don't need guarantees of exclusivity, and we're able to send our Associates players who wouldn't have otherwise known about their games."

Developers interested in learning more about the Skotos Associate Game program should contact Shannon Appelcline directly at shannona@skotos.net.

Players interested in trying out Skotos' new games should visit www.skotos.net  for a free trial month.

About Skotos Tech Inc.

Founded in 1999, Berkeley, California-based Skotos Tech Inc. (www.skotos.net) is a developer and publisher of multiplayer games. Its games all center around socialization and new Internet-based communities. Other games currently published by Skotos include Castle Marrach, The Eternal City, Galactic Emperor: Hegemony, and Grendel's Revenge.

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